By Michael Kelley

Christians believe that Jesus has already come. But we also believe that Jesus is coming back. And for as long as people have named the name of Jesus, the question of when Jesus is coming back has been debated and speculated on.

And though it might be interesting to speculate on the answer, perhaps the question of the specific time of his return is actually the wrong question to ask. Here’s a little illustration to help understand why: 

The best $7.99 I’ve spent in the last three years was adding a pretty extensive (and expensive, as far as apps go) weather app to my phone. It’s very cool. And just so you know I’m serious, I’ll say it again: It’s very cool (pay no attention to what my wife says regarding this issue). 

While you can use it to get all kinds of maps and track all kinds of storms, the thing I love most about it is the way it alerts me if severe weather is coming. You can set static locations, like home and work, and any time a storm is moving toward those locations, I get an alert. But it also has a “follow me” feature on it which, when you enable it, will alert you to severe weather when it is moving toward your current location no matter where you are. I could be in Colorado and get an alert about weather moving toward our home in Tennessee. Or I could be driving through south Texas and get an alert about a storm that’s currently in my path. 

What is the alert? Glad you asked. It’s a truly obnoxious sound that’s impossible to ignore – just the way I like it. That means my days of staying up all night watching for any approaching tornadoes are over. I know that my phone is going to scare me half to death at 3 am if indeed I need to know something dangerous is coming our way. I don’t have to constantly be thinking about the weather because the app will alert me when I need to pay attention.

In other words, I don’t have to BE alert, because I know that something will ALERT me. 

But while this is great when it comes to weather, it’s actually sort of the opposite kind of posture we are to have as it pertains to Jesus coming back. Because while we believe Jesus will return, we do not know when that will happen. In fact, Jesus Himself doesn’t know when it will happen: 

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matt. 24:36). 

It could be today. Like now. Or now. Or now. Or maybe tomorrow. Because we don’t know, we can’t wait to be alerted; we have to live alertly. That’s kind of the point.  

After a series of parables, all centering on the return of Jesus and the proper and improper ways to prepare, Jesus summarized it like this in Matthew 24:42:

“Therefore be alert, since you don’t know what day[s] your Lord is coming.” This constant state of awareness of Jesus’ return is why the wrong question to ask is, “When is Jesus coming back?” 

When we focus on that exact time, that exact moment, we rob ourselves of the kind of vigilance that God desires we live with.

Think about it in terms of other areas of life. When we have a fixed deadline, there is something inside of us that tends to procrastinate. To put off work that must be done until that deadline gets closer. To breathe easily because we know we have time to spare.  

Seen through that lens, it makes sense why the wrong question for us is, “When is Jesus coming back?” It’s wrong because there is work to be done today. Good to be done today. The gospel to be shared today. A Christian ought to live with a sense of urgency precisely because we don’t know when Jesus is coming back. 

No, the exact moment of Jesus’ return isn’t the question we should be asking. The question we should be asking instead is something like this:

“How does the eminent return of Jesus change my priorities right now?”

That’s the question of vigilance. It’s a question of alertness that doesn’t wait to be alerted. 

Michael Kelley is a husband, father of three, author, and speaker from Nashville, TN. His latest book is a year-long family devotional guide called The Whole Story for the Whole Family. Find his personal blog at michaelkelley.co.